In a variable rate digital communication system, such as the Electronics Industry Association (EIA)/Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) interim specification (IS) IS-95 code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular system, a conventional conference circuit can suffer severe voice quality degradation when two or more of the parties are mobile subscriber units. Such degradation may be caused by an additional transcoding operation, and associated delay, performed when a third communication channel is bridged to two mobile communication links. In addition, line echo cancellation performed at a transcoder can lead to further degradation in speech quality.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus and method for providing a multiparty call in a wireless commuinication system.